Final Score: Compassion 1, Bullying 0‏

From Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson's diary:

Well, we did it. We got some help for Americans who are living in their cars, and Americans who are eating cat food out of a can. Americans who have been out of work for almost two years, and then saw the right wing block their unemployment insurance payments for months.

Here is some interesting commentary on the speech that started it:



After that speech, the Senate voted to release the funds, the House voted yesterday, the President will sign the bill, and we're done.

We didn't get sidetracked by Dan Gainor's assault threat on Tuesday, or Mr. Anonymous' assassination threat on Wednesday.

Call them out.
Make them squirm.
Don't let them bully us.
Don't back down.

That's how we do it.

And it's working. Because in the House vote, 30 of the 179 Republicans peeled off from the all-powerful No Caucus, and voted to release the unemployment insurance funds. For the first time, they got that funny feeling that you get when you exercise a muscle that you didn't even know you had. That funny feeling the Republicans experienced was . . . a pang of conscience.

Evidently, 30 out of 179 Republicans in the House now have a functioning conscience. It's a start.